Document carrier envelope

ABSTRACT

A CARRIER ENVELOPE FOR DEFECTIVE SHEET MATERIAL TO ENABLE THE MATERIAL TO PASS THROUGH DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT AND/OR MICROFILMING APPARATUS HAVING AN OPAQUE SHEET OF ALONG AT LEAST ONE END AND THE BOTTOM, THE ENVELOPE BEING FORM 23/4 INCHES TO 41/8 INCHES IN WIDTH AND 6 INCHES TO 9 INCLUDES IN LENGTH AND OF AN OVERALL THICKNESS NOT EXCEEDING 0.0095 INCHES AND AN UNCOVERED BAND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FRONT OF THE BACK SHEET OF AT LEAST FIVE-EIGHTS INCHES IN HEIGHT.

United States Patent Rex P. Mc Nabb P.0. Box 976, Garland, Tex. 75040 851,252

Aug. 19, 1969 June 28, 1971 Inventor App]. No. Filed Patented DOCUMENT CARRIER ENVELOPE 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figs.

U.S.Cl 235161.12,

229/72, 229/68 Int. Cl ..G06k 19/00 Field of Search 229/72, 71,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,918,921 12/1959 Carlston .4 229/68UX 3,431,404 3/1969 Brink..... 229/68X 3,043,506 7/1962 Bremer 235/6l.12

Primary Examiner-David M. Bockenek Altorney- Dos T. Hatfield ABSTRACT: A carrier envelope for defective sheet material to enable the material to pass through data processing equipment and/or mierofilming apparatus having an opaque sheet of paper and a transparent sheet secured to the face thereof along at least one end and the bottom, the envelope being from 2% inches to 4% inches in width and 6 inches to 9 inches in length and of an overall thickness not exceeding 0.0095 inches and an uncovered band at the bottom of the front of the back sheet of at least five-eighths inches in height.

DOCUMENT CARRIER ENVELOPE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an envelope adapted to carry defective sheet material through data processing and microfilming equipment. The invention is ideally suitable for carrying bank checks, deposit slips, credit card invoices and the like through magnetically readable computers. Furthermore, if desired, the carried material may be microfilmed either in conjunction with the computer or independently thereof.

Practically all bank checks are now encoded at their bottom portion, on the fact thereof, with magnetic ink to identify the bank, the depositor, and when processed through a computer, the amount of the check. In many instances, the check becomes deformed or the magnetic indicia obliterated to such extent that it will not pass through the computer or the computer cannot properly read the indicia. Carriers for such defective material are in commercial use to the extent of many millions per month. Some of the carriers now in use are acceptable for their intended purpose but will not permit both computer reading and microfilming. Other carriers have varying defects, such as nonunifonnity of thickness which creates problems of encoding and processing the carrier through the equipment. Some of the satisfactory envelopes used for this purpose are, when compared with the envelope of the present invention, relatively expensive both from the per unit cost and the equipment for forming the same.

The objects of the present invention are to produce a carrier envelope which will overcome the aforementioned deficiencies and substantially reduce the cost of the same. The amount of material used in constructing the envelope made in accordance with the present invention is greatly reduced, thus substantially reducing the per unit cost. Also, the machinery used in constructing the envelope of the present invention is greatly simplified, which also reduces the cost of the envelope. The only machinery required for manufacturing the envelope is means for feeding two sheets of paper in properly aligned relationship, a glue roller to apply a continuous thin narrow line of adhesive parallel to the length of the paper sheets and a second glue applicator to apply spaced vertical lines of glue and an intermittently operated cutter to cut the continuous sheets after they are secured together into individual envelopes. Machinery for folding, creasing or otherwise turning or manipulating paper is not required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The carrier envelope of the present invention consists solely of a back sheet of opaque bond paper of approximately 20 pound register bond having a width of from 2 inches to 4 Vs inches and a length of from 6 inches to 9 inches and a front sheet of transparent material, such as 10 pound Klearview glassine paper or 1 1 pound Ripcomaster 01 l 1 paper. The front sheet of material has a length substantially the same as the back sheet but has a width of at least five-eighths inches less than the back sheet and the two sheets are secured together by narrow lines of adhesive on at least one end and at the bottom of the front sheet. The bottom of the front sheet is positioned at least five-eighths inch above the bottom of the back sheet so as to leave an uncovered continuous band on the face of the bottom of the back sheet for reception of magnetic ink in indicia form. The thickness of the opaque bond paper sheet and the transparent sheet, as well as the thickness of the narrow lines of adhesives, are such that the thickness of the envelope does not exceed 0.0095 inches.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the envelope showing the trailing edge with the upper transparent sheet separated from the back sheet for easy insertion of material.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view showing the two sheets separated and the manner ofsecuring the same together.

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view of the completed envelope.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in all three FIGS. reference character 10 indicates the back sheet of paper which is preferably formed of opaque 20 pound register sulfite bond having a thickness of approximately 0.00396 inches. Sulfite .bond paper has optimum acceptance of magnetic ink used in MICR encoding and optimum readability in optical scanning'mechanism. The sheet 10 is oblong in shape and its dimension is from 2 Y4 inches to 4 a inches in width and from 6 inches to 9 inches in length. The top sheet 12 is formed of transparent or highly translucent material so that a deformed document, such as a bank check, deposit slip or the like, may be sufficiently visible when inserted in the envelope to be microfilmed and so that the operator can readily ascertain at a glance that the document to be carried through the data processing equipment is properly positioned in the envelope. The front sheet 12 is preferably formed of 10 pound Klearview glassine paper having a thickness of approximately 0.00206 inches or I 1 pound Ripcomaster 01 l l having .an approximate thickness of 0.00211 inches. While Klearview glassine and Ripcomaster 0111 are commonly called translucent in the trade, this is technically a misnomer as the material is actually transparent. While other papers having the necessary transparency and thickness may be used as the front sheet 12, such as cellophane type paper, those previously mentioned are preferred as they avoid static electricity. The Klearview and Ripcomaster papers have approximately the same characteristics in connection with static electricity as the sulfite bond paper 10.

Reference character 14 indicates a thin line of thermoplastic hot melt adhesive having a thickness of approximately 0.00l inches which extends longitudinally across the entire length of back sheet 10. It is important, for reasons later to be described, that the line of adhesive I4 be positioned upwardly from the bottom edge of the back sheet 10 so as to leave an uncovered band of at least five-eighths inch from the bottom of sheet 10 to the line of adhesive 14. As shown in the drawing, the thickness of line 14, particularly in FIG. 3, is exaggerated. On the leading end of sheet 10 is a vertical line 16 of adhesive of the same type and thickness as line 14.

The sheets 10 and 12 are secured together, as shown in FIG. 1. Sheet 12 is substantially the same length as sheet 10 and the leading ends of the two sheets are secured together. Sheet 12 is narrower than sheet 10 so as to leave an uncovered band from the top of sheet 10 to the line of adhesive 14 of at least five-eighths inch and preferably does not extend to the top of sheet 10. While the trailing ends of the sheets 10 and 12 are shown as being unsecured, they may, if desired, be secured by a line of adhesive similar to line 16. Because of the difference in the physical characteristics of the two sheets 10 and 12, they may be easily separated at their top portions for insertion of a document by placing the envelope between a person's thumb and fingers and then moving the thumb, and hence the sheet 12 relative to sheet 10.

When a defective document such as a bank check, deposit slip or the like is encountered, the document is placed in the envelope so that its face is visible through sheet 12, the magnetic indicia appearing at the bottom of the document is then reproduced on the uncovered band at the bottom of the face of sheet 10. This places the magnetic indicia in the same relative position on sheet 10 as it appeared on the document so that it is in proper position for optical scanning. This is important, as otherwise, reading of the magnetic indicia on both the document and sheet 10 would result in inaccuracies.

As sheet 12 is transparent, the document in the envelope may be microfilmed before, during, after or independently of the computerizing equipment.

While the thickness of sheets 10 and I2 and the lines of adhesive 14 and 16 have been set forth herein, they are critical only to the extent that the thickness of the resulting envelope does not exceed 0.0095 inch. The thickness of the customary document processed and described herein is approximately 0.003 inch to 0.007 inch. The sorting machines which feed the documents to the data processing equipment are set to handle the thicknesses of the documents. Such machines have tolerances to feed properly documents having varying thicknesses but not beyond certain limits. Thus, automatic equipment capable of handling documents of from 0.003 inch to 0.007 inch will also handle documents having thicknesses up to 0.0165 inch. Also, such equipment is adapted to handle documents from 2 inches to 4 Va inches in width and from 6 inches to 9 inches in length. Thus, in order to process documents per se and defective documents carried through the equipment in an envelope without changing the equipment, the envelopes must not exceed the dimensions of the documents plus the tolerances allowed by the equipment.

lclaim:

l. A carrier envelope for documents to be processed on automatic data processing equipment, said envelope consisting solely of two unfolded sheets of oblong paper and at least two narrow lines of adhesive, one of said sheets of paper being a back sheet and the other a from sheet, said back sheet of paper being opaque bond paper having a width of from 2 inches to 4 A: inches and a length of from 6 inches to 9 inches, said front sheet being transparent and having a length substantially the same as said back sheet and a width of at least fiveeighths less than said back sheet, said sheets being secured together by said narrow lines of adhesive at at least one end and at the bottom of said from sheet, the bottom of said front sheet being positioned at least five-eighths inch above the bottom of said back sheet so as to leave an uncovered band of opaque bond paper at the bottom of said back sheet for reception of magnetic ink in indicia form, the thickness of said envelope not exceeding 0.0095 inches. 

